In the face of darkness, high stakes, and horrible odds, you can save yourself and the world
I *am* writing this morning, but I wanted to get a link up to this charitable effort for Japan, featuring the efforts of many YA authors on my friend’s list. There are some great opportunities for editing here.
Look, isn’t that Jodi Meadows auctioning a complete manuscript critique?
And isn’t up and coming author Rae Carson auctioning a look at 20 pages of your work?
These guys know what they’re doing. Go over there. Bid a lot, and bid often.
Catherine
I’m working on the intrigue factor of my first line for Substance of Shadows.
Which of these lines makes you want to read further? And why? And yes, a possible answer could be that none of them excite, which means I have more work to do. I am also interested in your reaction solely on the line. You shouldn’t need to know the story. You should just want to read more based on the first line.
1. Tonight, the choice Stephanus made would determine the future of his soul.
2. To damn or be damned, possibly both.
3. Bruised knuckles and blood on his fist wasn’t a good start to his new destiny.
4. There wasn’t much light left in his soul after all this, but there was enough.
5. Errol had the girl. Why shouldn’t Stephanus have the demon?
6. For once, he was going to win.
7. Stephanus thought the choice was going to be clear, but it was as muddled as everything else.
Thank you for your feedback.
Catherine
First of all, let me signal boost a couple of friends, who are making efforts toward Japan relief.
Catrina Horsfield is auctioning one of her works.
And many Indie authors are teaming up to raise funds:
***
And now, a pedagogical request for aid. I have a student who is trying to improve her writing skills. She wants to be a YA author, and ultimately her goal is to get into an MFA program in Vermont. She has a lot to learn, but she wants to learn it. As a matter of fact, she’s willing to pay someone to help her practice her technique over the summer.
You might say, “Well, Catherine, you’re the teacher.” Good for you, for noticing! However, I am going to be pretty much unavailable from June 8th, when I leave for Norway until July 20-something, when I get back to the office after North American Disc World. It’s a busy old summer, and I don’t think I can squeeze her in, not even with the Siren Lure of Money (TM).
I have recommended a good writing book (gee, would that be The Breakout Novelist by Donal Maass? I am such a tool!). But what she needs is someone to tell her about her work, and how she can improve it.
If you think you might be interested, just shoot me an email. If you have questions about remuneration, I can make an attempt at finding out.
And thanks for considering it.
Catherine
I have heard from most of my friends in Japan. Most of them are fine. As expected, some close to the Sendai region, including friends in Tokyo are a little concerned about radiation. But I am much relieved to hear of their status.
***
Projects in the real world are conspiring to keep me off line at the moment. I’ve been doing a lot of writing and planning for Substance, and I’ve been working on the Wicked Queen’s purple gown. Tonight it’s all about the sleeves, which I have to re-draft. The rest of the outfit fits fine, but apparently my Soviet weightlifter arms aren’t what the pattern was planning for.
Edits for O-Taga-San have been returned. I am officially not expecting anything from the publishing world again. It’s been a while since I’ve only had submissions out there.
***
Um…LOVING Maass’ The Breakout Novelist Workbook. It’s the most fun I’ve had writing in a while, and it is causing me to dig deep and close to my characters. I’m getting excited about writing these big moments that are going into my note book. It’s not going to be easy to get all this to come together, but I will do my level best to make this one the one that’s going to get the agent. It won’t be for lack of hard work anyway. Or maybe it’s smarter work. Probably both.
***
Back to work next week, which means probably more regular updates.
Hope you’re having a good weekend.
Cath
I am back in Iowa in time for spring break. Yesterday I spent the majority of the day cutting out a purple velvet dress and sewing it. Bastet loved getting to lounge on all the soft fabric. I am a bit out of practice. My formerly calloused thumbs actually hurt from all the pin shoving, which means I could use some thimbles.
Today I’m in town buying a zipper for the dress, which I will return to tomorrow. I’m also doing a variety of exciting activities, such as getting the oil changed in the car and picking up medicine. Going protesting tonight as well–since I’m in a reconciling congregation, we figured we would protest against the former candidate for governor in the state who campaigned largely on the one man-one woman marriage platform.
***
That’s how my day’s shaping up. Maybe you’d like to know a bit about the Fire in Fiction workshop?
I don’t know how many of you realize my MA is in business and technical writing. I started out as a creative writing major, completed the majority of the classes I needed in a year, and was seduced away by a bunch of really bright and interesting professors who had a major that looked like it would lead to employment. It is actually through this MA that I ended up at Kirkwood, because we had a tech writing degree for a short time.
Technical writing is relevant here. So far, I have been in workshops of two types. The first type, most of the writers groups and Viable Paradise, are for authors by authors. These groups focus on improving your work. The people in them also have work that they want to improve, and you help them. This is a good approach. Writers, both your peers, and more experienced writers and editors, can help you improve your work markedly through their own publishing experiences.
The Maass workshop, on the other hand, reminded me of when I sat down with a client during the tech writing years. When preparing a technical piece, the writer would ask the client specifically what they hoped the document would do. What were the special requirements? What were the conventions and expectations of the parent organization? Maass was essentially breaking down into components what editors had asked him for, backed up by knowledge of what he knows sells well. He discussed how to create page turners, how to create micro-tension, how to work with voice. I felt like I received three days of instruction about the conventions of the publishing industry.
Writer Bo Balder traveled a long way to participate in Viable Paradise XIII, bringing with her a sunny disposition, a hilarious satyr story, and a background in fan fiction. Checking in with her now, she’s developing her writing career in her native country, where her first story was published last year.
Tamago: When did you first start writing? Why did you decide to write?
Bo: I think it was in the first year of secondary school. I’d always made up stories in my head and turned them into play scenarios with the other kids, I’d drawn maps and genealogies. But when I got an A for a composition we had to write about our pets, and I chose a dragon, that kind of sealed it.
Tamago: What was your first writing project?
Bo: It was a novel about space travelers landing on a mysterious planet ( I was twelve). I still might write that some day, but I got pretty much stuck after the first two chapters…I was still describing how everyone looked and hadn’t gotten round to plot yet.
Tamago: Why did you decide to start writing in English?
Bo: That’s jumping a head a couple of decades…I’d taken a three month sabbatical to decide whether I would become a full time painter ( artist) or not. I didn’t paint, those three months. Instead, I started writing fanfic. Which happened to be in English! There wasn’t much of a decision process. I thought, after reading a Buffy/Spike fanfic, I can do that too. In fact, I can do that better ( I hadn’t read any of the really good people yet, if you think that’s hubris). And so I did. The fanfic world has people called betas, who don’t write but are willing to edit. They really helped me get off the ground, because I started with the writing skills of an 18-year old, I hadn’t written for so long.
Tamago: What are the differences between writing in your first language, Dutch, and a language that you’ve learned?
Bo: There really aren’t that many differences. Writing is writing, for me. I see a Technicolor Surround sound, fully scented picture in my head and I write it down. So it’s a translation anyway, from the movie in my head to the paper. Of course it’s harder to write well in English, but there have always been nice people willing to help me with tenses and stuff – that’s the hardest. Not so much finding the words.
English writing, in my mind, can take richer, more elaborate language. The Dutch are so down-to-earth, I really have to tone it down when I write in Dutch. Or maybe my ear for language isn’t as critical as it is in my native Dutch. Or my inner critic is less stroppy in English…
Tamago: Recently you’ve had a story included in an anthology, Satyricon. Do you feel your Viable Paradise workshopping experience changed that story in anyway?
Bo: It changed my view of that story. I saw where I needed to make changes to make it work better. I hadn’t given my hero the right impossible choice, and John Scalzi gave me some invaluable hints how a guy would reaction if his chemical castration would be lifted….Strangely enough, the editor of the anthology preferred the first version, and since he was boss…I let him have it.
Tamago: What project are you working on right now? Can you describe it a bit?
Bo: I’m working on a YA novel set in the Netherlands, written in Dutch. It’s about a girl who’s a child of a Valkyrie and a Djinn, discovering her dual heritage while she tries to save her father from imprisonment in Asgard. She succeeds, but then discovers he was imprisoned for a reason, and she’s made things worse…
Tamago: Do you consider yourself any specific type of writer (as in horror? SF? urban fantasy?) Why?
Bo: Hm, that’s a difficult one. I’ve written soft sf, urban fantasy and a sort of mix between high fantasy and sf. And steampunk! Russian steampunk. One of my fave books so far. I think I will never ever write hard sf, high fantasy or horror. I don’t have the technical knowledge for hard sf, I don’t like castles and princesses, and I often have some horror ( or horrific) elements in my stories, but I can’t imagine ever doing straight-up horror. Thin lines, anyway. And never say never…
Tamago: I know you have a background in fan fiction. Do you feel fan fiction has influenced your writing in any way? What is your favorite fandom to write in?
Bo: I’ve only ever written Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfic. It was a wonderful playground to be in, a ready-made appreciative audience with no layers between the writer and the public – instant publication, and their judgment, free of economics, whether they liked you or not. It made me free to try out my wings and be outrageous.
The drawback is that you play in someone else’s playground, with a lot of world building and characterization already done. I had to relearn a lot of skills when I left the fanfic world, skills I didn’t even realize I was missing. There’s so much theme built into BtVS, so much resonance, and it took hard work to be able to play with that again in my original work.
Also in fanfic you’re supposed to cram in the pop culture references, and riff off them. In regular fic, I’ve had critters get mad because you’ve used an actual product name. So yeah, the cultures, the dos and don’ts are very different. I think it’s easier to dip into the fanfic world if you come from original writing, than the other way around.
Tamago: Where do you hope to be 10 years into your writing career?
Bo: I hope to have published novels in the Netherlands as well as in the English world, through translation or directly. I love writing books and stories, and I want people to read them! I’ve got several novels written, wouldn’t it be a waste to have them moulder on my hard drive?
Tamago: If you could have dinner with any writer that you’ve admired, who would it be and why?
Bo: I think Ursula LeGuin. She was one of the first writers I discovered in my teens, in our SF-poor small town library, and I’ve always stuck with her, except maybe a bit in the 80-ies. She’s so sensitive to the role of the Other in every kind of society, she writes with such delicacy and transparency. I can still reread her books without any loss of enjoyment, which isn’t always true for other writers from my youth.
Tamago: What advice would you give to other writers based on your experiences?
Bo: Nothing earth-shattering. Just write what you like, and write a lot. And read what you like, and read a lot. Find people to share with, otherwise it’s a pretty lonely vocation.
I haven’t heard from many of my Japanese friends yet, and of course I can imagine that their first priority is not to get on the Internet and let me know they are safe. The ones I am most concerned about are the ones in the Tokyo area.
For those who are interested, however, I have heard from Mr. Iwahara. He is safe. However, the college he works for, the JIKEI group, have sustained massive losses in Sendai. He will write more later.
It’s a long shot, because I’m sure none of my former students or my friends read Writer Tamago. But if you’re out there, get in touch with me and assure me that you’re well. I am concerned.
Catherine
Here we go.
Students walk out of high schools in Madison
The Ed Show interviews the Wisconsin 14: Wisconsin Dems intend to legally challenge.